Caio Eduardo Cunha Leitão

Leonardo Bruni's History of the Florentine people, written during the first decades of the 15th century, is recognized as the most important work of the renowned humanist and chancellor of Florence. In his History, Bruni revisits the origins of the city and its foundation - highlighting the influence of the Etruscans - and narrates in detail all the important episodes of the city until its own time (early 15th century). In two moments of this narrative, we can locate central concepts of the republican tradition expressed by the chancellor: the Ordinances of Justice and the ciompi's revolt. Both episodes are central to Bruni's History and are also prominent moments in other stories of the city, such as Machiavelli's History of Florence, written in the 16th century. To expose these moments in his history, Machiavelli not only takes Bruni's account as a basis, but also, to some extent, seeks to reveal the motivations of the characters about whom Bruni is silent. Seeking to broaden the debate about the sources of Bruni and Machiavelli, we also compared their stories with some of the most important chronicles of the period. Based on these analyzes, we tried to explain the possible points of support of Machiavelli in the Brunian work and in the chroniclers for the writing of his History of Florence and some of his criticisms of Bruni's view of the narrated facts.